Cross-posted at Red Mass Group.
This is an interesting twist. Dr. Robert Bentley won the GOP nomination for governor tonight, beating the establishment candidate. In his web biography, here’s how he describes himself:
He is a pro-life, pro-marriage, and pro-second amendment conservative who believes in smaller and more limited government. Bentley is the only Republican candidate for Governor of Alabama who completed an undergraduate degree at the University of Alabama.
He also has a strong and firm opinion about charter schools.
On February 10, 2010 I voted to indefinitely postpone considering charter school legislation because it was inadequate for Alabama and needed improvement. While I prepared two amendments to improve the bill so I could vote in favor of it, the committee did not consider either one. My first amendment limited the initial number of initial charter schools to ten, five for technical schools and five for local community schools. This initial limit would allow the state to test and evaluate the effectiveness of charter schools before implementing it statewide. My second amendment gave local school boards sole authority on whether to establish charter schools in their communities, instead of the State Board of Education. I support maximizing local authority and providing increased flexibility to local school boards, and believe local communities can better assess their own needs than the State Board of Education.
Finally, I am not willing to fund an untested program in Alabama in order to get an Obama bailout from the “Race to the Top” money in the Obama stimulus. I am not willing to fund an untested program in Alabama in order to get an Obama bailout. To obtain this money, Alabama would have to change our educational rules and regulations and keep these changes in place even after the federal money runs out, even though that money does nothing to fund charter schools. We as Republicans have been opposed to Obama bailout money. I will continue to oppose accepting any federal funds which require Alabama to change its laws and make us responsible for funding new programs when the federal money runs out.
Note that Massachusetts rushed to change the laws to get the Race to the Top bailout, and we were rejected in our bid for the funds.
So, is there a liberal or conservative position on charter schools?
this looks to me like an Alabama Republican taking the “if Obama’s fer it, then I’m agin’ it” approach to pretty much every issue. Not sure there’s a broader lesson there about education policy.
Certainly if Obama’s against it’s good for the governor.
But Obama’s Race to the Top is stoopid. It does advance untested reforms. As we have seen, it also doles out the money with a skewed system. See this Richard Rothstein brief for a snapshot of stupidity behind the brainiacs at the DOE. It’s embarassing.
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p>On the average, charter schools don’t perform any better than regular schools on tests. It’s not hard to believe that the below-average charter schools are also below the Mason-Dixon line.
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p>This is a situation where good politics (for Alabama’s governor) is also good policy.